One of our former employees, Dean, passed away this week. Even though we haven't seen him in several years, Dean remained near and dear to our hearts.

Dean started working here on Sept. 2, 2000. We don't always remember the exact date someone starts working, but this one was significant: it was the day manager Dave got married. Most of the staff was attending the wedding, and Dave needed someone to work.

Dean had become a regular at the bar, drinking Miller Lite and wearing loud Hawaiian shirts. And, he was from Florida. We couldn't have picked a better hire for a tropical beach bar! So, Dean's first shift was on a Saturday night, which was probably a normal Saturday until the wedding party descended after midnight and then left the new guy to figure out how to close the bar.

Dean was a trooper, though, and he figured it out. He was going to school at KU, working on graduate degrees in the music department. He loved the Florida Gators and made sure everyone knew it. Dean was a loyal employee and always willing to work, and everyone loved him.

Dean was one of the first people to experience the Sandbar ghost. Our first documented evidence of the ghost is from the night after St. Patrick's Day, 2003, and Dean was there to witness it.

He eventually finished his degrees and left Lawrence for Indiana. He was back in town in November, 2007, and Dave was thrilled to see him.

Then, he came back a few months later in March, 2008, and several of us were able to enjoy an evening of sushi and drinking with him. We'll always remember the fun we had that night.

The picture below was taken when Dean was here in November, 2007.

We'll miss you, Dean, and raise our Miller Lites in your honor.

We're hoping to plan a memorial at the Sandbar sometime soon, so Dean's friends and former customers can come together and share memories. You can also leave your memories of him in the comments.

Visit the Facebook memorial page for Dean to see lots of pictures and read many great memories that people have of Dean.

Regular readers of this blog know that we've been serious about researching the ghost that seems to haunt the Sandbar.

Last week, on the 148th anniversary of Quantrill's Raid on Lawrence, several Sandbar staff and friends went on a history tour around town.

Our chief ghost researcher, Emerson, believed at one time that our ghost was a soldier killed in the raid. He's since moved on to other potential theories, but during his research we got interested in the raid and thought it would be smart to learn more about it. Just in case our ghost really was a soldier.

We met up with the tour leader and other participants at the Eldridge Hotel, one of the most historic sites in Kansas related to the Civil War and also home to a ghost. From there, we traveled by van to Oak Hill Cemetery in East Lawrence, the site where Quantrill's raiders gathered and looked out over Lawrence before the raid; South Park, where Lawrence soldiers were camped; Pioneer Cemetery on the KU campus, where many of those killed in the raid are buried; and finally back to the Eldridge.

The tour we took was through Paranormal Adventures USA. This group offers a variety of history and ghost tours around Kansas and Missouri, including some "ghosts and grapes" tours at wineries that really piqued our interest!

They also offer the opportunity to "clear your space" of ghosts, something we're not really sure we want to do as our ghost appears to be friendly and harmless, as well as ghost investigations. We're hoping to schedule an investigation sometime soon so we can learn more about our ghost.

In the meantime, though, we'd like to encourage everyone to learn more about the history of Lawrence, especially the Civil War and Quantrill's Raid. It was a significant event in this country's history, and it gives a lot of insight to today's ongoing sports rivalry between Kansas and Missouri!

If you've followed this blog for very long, you know we have a ghost in the bar. And you may also know that we're actively researching the ghost to find out who he was in his former life. You might say we've become a little bit obsessed.

Our good friend Emerson is leading the investigation. He's also a history buff, and he's spent countless hours poring over old maps, pictures and other information trying to figure out who our ghost might be. At one point, he was convinced that it was the ghost of a soldier killed in Quantrill's Raid.

So, when we saw that Paranormal Adventures USA had a history tour scheduled for Lawrence this weekend, we jumped on it. A group of us are going on the Quantrill's Raid tour on Sunday. It starts at the Eldridge Hotel- another local spot known for having a ghost- and lasts for two hours.

Who knows, maybe we'll find out something interesting about our block or even our building!

According to Dave, the ghost had been quiet for a long time. Until recently, because of a good friend and regular who shall remain nameless because he is terrified of the ghost and he might lose credibility in his day job if we named him.

This friend decided to start looking into old city records to find out what businesses have been in our building in the past and see if there was a connection. Around that time, the ghost started acting up- and that's when Dave saw him.

The ghost also made an appearance the night of the infamous toilet-trashing episode. While the guys were cleaning the bar up after closing time, they heard the distinctive sound of a chiming doorbell coming from the bathroom. There is nothing in the bar that would make the sound of a doorbell.

Of course the recent ghost activity freaked our friend out, and he's decided to stop snooping in city records. (He also may never use the restroom in the bar again.) And the ghost has been quiet ever since.

Dave was working late one night upstairs in the office. He heard someone coming up the stairs and assumed it was Tyler, heading into the upstairs front room to turn off the neon lights in the windows. He even caught a glimpse of him out of the corner of his eye as he passed the office door.

Dave walked into the front room, but didn't see Tyler anywhere.

He went downstairs, where he found Tyler cleaning up. Dave asked him if he'd been upstairs at all, and Tyler said no.

This is the first sighting of the Sandbar ghost. We've heard lots of stories of the ghost playing tricks on the staff, but to my knowledge no one has actually seen the ghost yet. Until now.

Here's a guest blog from long-time bartender Heather, works the Friday 5-9 shift. Last Friday was Heather's first shift back after several days off, and it happened to be Friday the 13th. Welcome back, Heather!

Friday the 13th, another Friday night down at The Sandbar- or so I thought walking in the door. That was before five bar crawls, a bachelorette party and a birthday celebration made their way through our doors. Yes, that’s right: five bar crawls in just four hours.

One group of bar crawlers got out the super long shotski, one group sang their sorority song, there were matching T-shirts, Dirty Banana shots, Shark Attacks, Bahama Mamas, broken glassware, yelling, hugging, and photo-taking. One group had a guy calling out the remaining time in the bar, which, having been on a bar crawl or two, I thought was awesome.

Most of our patrons were quite patient with the ruckus and, in fact, seemed amused by all of it. In addition to all of the festivities we had old friends, new friends, a just-turned-21-year-old and his family, a cute little guy in his stroller, a soon-to-be-married couple out on a date, a potential romance blooming and, of course, some KU Grads.

Personally, I think the ghost may have even been in attendance as well. We have a handy step stool for those of us who aren't Dave’s height. I was getting down from pulling a couple of T-shirts and missed the bottom step. Instead of crashing to the floor I just kind of… landed. Okay, so it isn’t that far to the ground, but I am a klutz of the highest order. Which was unfortunate for Phil on this particular night as I did actually stomp on his foot once or twice.

At the end of it all I can’t help but think that Jimmy Buffet could probably turn this particular night into one heck of a song!

The night was so full of entertainment that we'll have several more guest blogs from Heather about the evening. Stay tuned!

The Sandbar ghost seems to be making frequent appearances lately. Here's an excerpt from our "door diary" about the ghost's recent contact.

It was a sweltering hot Monday night at the Sandbar in the middle of July. It was closing time and the two employees, Tyler and Fyler, thought they were all alone. At 2:07 a.m., Fyler's phone rang and logged a conversation lasting six seconds.

Confused, Fyler asked Tyler "Why are you calling me?"

Tyler looked at his phone and realized it had made no such call.

Have you ever felt like you weren't alone in the Sandbar at closing time?

"Did you pull money out of the change bank when you were here earlier?" Joe asked.

"No," Dave responded. "Why?"

"Well, I know there was a hundred dollar bill in there. I saw it earlier. And now I can't find it anywhere."

Dave sighed and drove back to the bar to look for the missing money. Between him, John and Joe they tore the place apart. They looked under the register, between the liquor bottles and in all of the usual "hiding places" things disappear into at the bar. And believe me, things disappear. And a hundred dollars is kind of a big deal.

No luck. Finally, Dave pulls out the ones and fives from the register to count them yet again. Halfway through the bundle of five dollar bills, he found the missing hundred.

"That's nuts. I swear I counted that bundle earlier and that bill wasn't there," said John.

My coworker and I had gotten food and brought it in- we were starving and didn't think we should start in on the Pink Flamingos on an empty stomach. We were sitting in the little corner table by the fish tank. Trivia was happening, it was more crowded than I thought it would be but I guess I'd never been there on a Thursday during trivia before.

Anyway, I could tell there was definitely a group of trivia "regulars," and there seemed to be another guy who was playing but was maybe a newbie - he wasn't really talking to anyone. I wasn't paying attention to the trivia because my friend and I were gossiping and complaining about our jobs (sometimes, you have dark days).

At one point there was some rumbling that sounded like thunder but then we realized it was coming from upstairs. The place got mostly quiet, and then it sounded like someone was running down the stairs. Someone shouted "it's the ghost" and we all chuckled.

A moment later we knew it wasn't as the ghost, as quiet trivia guy came barreling out from the stairwell running straight at the aquarium.

And then we all ended up soaked and the place was flooded because some crazy trivia guy flipped out and crashed the aquarium.

If it had happened. Which it did not.

*Recently I put a desperate call out for stories for this blog, and I thought I was going to have to start making up stories. Fortunately, I don't have to, since we have friends who will make things up for us. Rest assured, the aquarium is intact and the fish are safe. The ghost, however, is laughing at us all.